CP Hard Tags-3, Stop Shoplifting-1 , EAS-3, EAS Tags-1
The Lesson Never Learned
A few months ago I stopped a shoplifter at a store I don’t even work at. I wondered what they did when they discovered the pile of nail polishes in the floor after we left. The answer is: *drum roll please* nothing at all. To be clear, this store does not employ any product protection tools such as Checkpoint Systems. My daughter and I went to the same little beauty supply store yesterday and there were two employees there. When we walked in, they were both standing in an aisle chatting. When we were ready to check out, that’s where we found them still. So here is my summary of our shopping trip.
We walk in the front door, and neither of the ladies bothers to speak, much less even look away from their conversation with one another. My first observation is that they have no type of electronic article surveillance that I can see. You may not want your cameras in visible locations, but having some sort of deterrence system in plain sight is important. It sends the message that your business is serious about its plan to stop shoplifting. The next thing I noticed was some bags hanging right at the door. They weren’t shopping bags; they were free with the purchase of a hair appliance that was also being displayed beside the door. I wonder who thought “let’s put these $80 hair straighteners right here on a table next to the front door”. Since there was no type of EAS tags on those boxes, I imagine those bags come in pretty handy for shoplifters. As I kept walking around the store, it became clear that this place is the ultimate nightmare of every loss prevention employee I know. There are implements and accessories that retail upwards of $20 each, and are merely packaged in thin plastic. They are so small and thin, a person could easily clean off the entire peg in just a moment. If you keep walking down the aisles, you come to a huge selection of expensive nail polishes. I cannot even begin to imagine how many bottles of these they lose on a daily basis. Then you come to another big section of expensive air appliances. As if putting them right beside the front door isn’t a bad enough idea, putting them in the back of the store is so much worse. Your inventory can’t defend itself. It’s such a bad store layout, and not having any kind of product protection in place, like Checkpoint Hard Tags, is just beyond imagination to me.
The really bad thing about this visit was talking to my daughter about it. I said this place makes blogging too easy. She said “I’ll send you some links to all the lifting sites that write about it.” It turns out this little chain store is famous. They tell all the shoplifters-in-training that this is the place to start your new career. Practice at the beauty supply store because they have no EAS system, they don’t use any type of Check Hard Tags or labels, and the minimal staff on duty has better things to do than watch or interact with shoppers. No store can thrive or even survive with this type of business model. This type of store sells high margin merchandise, so not only are they losing the inventory they paid for, they are also losing all the profits they would be making from the sales. When businesses make the decision to not invest in an EAS system, or utilize tools such as Checkpoint Hard Tags and labels, they set themselves up for failure and huge shrink results. Don’t be that business.
For more information on Checkpoint Hard Tags, contact us or call 1.770.426.0547
A few months ago I stopped a shoplifter at a store I don’t even work at. I wondered what they did when they discovered the pile of nail polishes in the floor after we left. The answer is: *drum roll please* nothing at all. To be clear, this store does not employ any product protection tools such as Checkpoint Systems. My daughter and I went to the same little beauty supply store yesterday and there were two employees there. When we walked in, they were both standing in an aisle chatting. When we were ready to check out, that’s where we found them still. So here is my summary of our shopping trip.
We walk in the front door, and neither of the ladies bothers to speak, much less even look away from their conversation with one another. My first observation is that they have no type of electronic article surveillance that I can see. You may not want your cameras in visible locations, but having some sort of deterrence system in plain sight is important. It sends the message that your business is serious about its plan to stop shoplifting. The next thing I noticed was some bags hanging right at the door. They weren’t shopping bags; they were free with the purchase of a hair appliance that was also being displayed beside the door. I wonder who thought “let’s put these $80 hair straighteners right here on a table next to the front door”. Since there was no type of EAS tags on those boxes, I imagine those bags come in pretty handy for shoplifters. As I kept walking around the store, it became clear that this place is the ultimate nightmare of every loss prevention employee I know. There are implements and accessories that retail upwards of $20 each, and are merely packaged in thin plastic. They are so small and thin, a person could easily clean off the entire peg in just a moment. If you keep walking down the aisles, you come to a huge selection of expensive nail polishes. I cannot even begin to imagine how many bottles of these they lose on a daily basis. Then you come to another big section of expensive air appliances. As if putting them right beside the front door isn’t a bad enough idea, putting them in the back of the store is so much worse. Your inventory can’t defend itself. It’s such a bad store layout, and not having any kind of product protection in place, like Checkpoint Hard Tags, is just beyond imagination to me.
The really bad thing about this visit was talking to my daughter about it. I said this place makes blogging too easy. She said “I’ll send you some links to all the lifting sites that write about it.” It turns out this little chain store is famous. They tell all the shoplifters-in-training that this is the place to start your new career. Practice at the beauty supply store because they have no EAS system, they don’t use any type of Checkpoint Hard Tags or labels, and the minimal staff on duty has better things to do than watch or interact with shoppers. No store can thrive or even survive with this type of business model. This type of store sells high margin merchandise, so not only are they losing the inventory they paid for, they are also losing all the profits they would be making from the sales. When businesses make the decision to not invest in an EAS system, or utilize tools such as Checkpoint Hard Tags and labels, they set themselves up for failure and huge shrink results. Don’t be that business.
For more information on Checkpoint Hard Tags, contact us or call 1.770.426.0547
